The Daytona 'shootout'? Without Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer?

Brad Keselowski, gets a bye in the Daytona opener (Photo: GettyImages for NASCAR)

(Developing)

By Mike Mulhern mikemulhern.net

CHARLOTTE
Champion Brad Keselowski and tour runner-up Clint Bowyer will get the night off, and they may be just as glad to be on the sidelines watching Daytona's SpeedWeeks kickoff.
The Daytona kickoff, now billed as the Sprint Unlimited, formerly the Daytona Shootout, will have some quirky new rules, and the precise format for the made-for-TV 75-lap (187 miles) race Saturday night Feb. 16th is still up in the air...because the stock car tour's sponsor will set some key parts of the format by fan vote.
As in the All-Star race, each May at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Daytona sprint will be divided into three segments.
Fans can vote on the length of each segment: either 40 laps/20 laps/15 laps, or 35 laps/30 laps/10 laps, or 30 laps/ 25 laps/20 laps.
Fans can also vote on whether or not teams will be allowed a pit stop after the first segment, and whether or not that would be a two-tire stop or four-tire stop. (If fans vote no stop, NASCAR says drivers will not be allowed to pit after the first segment.)
Also, fans can vote to eliminate cars after the second segment, either two, four, six, or none.
Voting for the segments runs until Wednesday Feb. 13. Voting for the pit stop runs till the green flag of the first segment. Voting for eliminations runs till the green flag of the second segment.
The race has 22 driver entries: last season's 18 pole winners, plus four past winners of the shootout.
The 22: Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex Jr., Tony Stewart, AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Joey Logano, Ken Schrader, Marcos Ambrose, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, and Juan Pablo Montoya, all pole winners last year, plus Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte.

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE RACE RUN IN THE 30/25/20 FORMAT.
NO PIT STOPS BETWEEN SEGMENTS.
NO CARS ELIMINATED
COMPLETELY REVERSE THE LINEUP IF BASED ON POINT POSITION FROM LAST YEAR.
INVERT THE ENTIRE FIELD IF BASED ON QUALIFIYING SPEED.
FORGET THE GIMMICKS AND LETS SEE SOME CLOSE RACING.

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From what I saw, referred to a mandatory pit stop between the first two segments, and I voted no, because I think there should never be a mandatory pit stop in an All-Star-type event. But not allowing a pit stop between the first two segments? Unless they're going to stop the cars in the pits for a certain amount of time (like 10 minutes to make any changes they would make on a normal pit stop and to discuss strategy), they have to let them stop, or none of them will have enough fuel to run the first two segments. After all, they can't go 55 laps on a tank of fuel at Daytona any more.

I also voted none on the eliminations, because no cars should be eliminated based solely on where they're running. The end of last year's Shootout proves that. Besides, there might not be enough cars left to eliminate any because so many might end up wrecked.

I am, however, in favor of a full-field inversion of lead lap cars, but only between the first two segments. That would allow those running in front time to get back there. When the All-Star Race was at it's height in the mid-to-late 90s, that was a prominent feature, but the timing of the inversion allowed the cars that were put to the back, time to get back to the front, unlike the 2002-'03 All-Star Race inversion rules, which gave those running at the front no chance to win, because they were put at the back and only had 10 laps to make it up.

And inverting the field between the first two segments will lessen the impact of sandbagging, which was the deciding factor the last time the field was inverted between segments of the Shootout, which was in 1997. In that race, Jeff Gordon and Dale, Sr. intentionally ran at the back in the first segment, knowing that would get them up front for the second segment, and Jeff won the race, while Dale, Sr. ended up third (behind Rusty Wallace). After that, the field inversion and multiple segments were eliminated from the Shootout, and though the multiple segments were brought back, the field inversion hasn't been.